First week of fall west of Asheville, plus hive beetle updates

[@BrianCooper901]

Great update! It looks like you had a great first week of fall. I wanted to clarify my understanding of small hive beetles and the trap. I've heard of powdered sugar for passively treating varroa mites as it gets the bees to groom it off, but I don't think this relates to SHB. I have to put vegetable oil in my bottom tray so when the beetles fall they die in the oil. Without the oil they can just climb back up in the hive. We are still catching 100-300 a week in our hives where we are. I hope your beetle pressures subside as the weather cools. Thanks for sharing your fall adventures.

[@fiveacreshoneyfarm]

It’s great to hear you’re having success with the Freeman beetle traps. I’m still disappointed with them. After leaving it a week only 10 beetles were caught. I watched a few videos about these traps and folks all seem to use the powdered sugar to motivate the bees to groom and encourage more of a beetle fall. The powdered sugar is definitely more well known for varroa mite checks, but apparently it has another use with the beetles. With the temperatures dropping I took the freeman traps off and replaced them with solid bottom boards. The beetles are still crazy, but I’m optimistic. The little traps inside the hive continue to be ineffective too-out of 4 traps in each hive I only got 1 beetle in each hive.

[@BrianCooper901]

@@fiveacreshoneyfarm Good info. I hope the cool weather knocks them out so your bees can overwinter for you this year. Thanks.